joerivera03
Member
can someone tell me the proper way to set and deal with color bars before i go to a shoot?
Color Bars
- Thread starter joerivera03
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Barry_Green
Moderator
http://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htm
However, you cannot set it up before going to a shoot, you have to calibrate the monitor on the shoot, under the lighting conditions you'll be at (i.e., not the subject's lighting, but whatever light conditions -- direct sunlight, pitch black, whatever -- that the monitor will be used under).
And any time you move the monitor to new lighting conditions you should recalibrate.
However, you cannot set it up before going to a shoot, you have to calibrate the monitor on the shoot, under the lighting conditions you'll be at (i.e., not the subject's lighting, but whatever light conditions -- direct sunlight, pitch black, whatever -- that the monitor will be used under).
And any time you move the monitor to new lighting conditions you should recalibrate.
Bill_Bolton
Well-known member
Also in addition to Barry's reply, the ASC manual has the setup proceedure.
Correct me if I am wrong, but shouldnt it be enough to calibrate the monitor using colour bars, which you can do at any place? The shooting conditions aren't a variable here I think, since you just calibrate the output (via bars) of a given camera. If you adjust the monitor because of location circumstances, it seems to me that you might be in for a big surprise in the editing room. Actually, I am speaking out of experience here (yikes), since I once, a loong time ago (ahum) I did this to the extreme and found myself stuck with a really funny picture in the end....
Barry_Green
Moderator
You *have* to calibrate the monitor for the current viewing conditions, or you won't be seeing an accurate representation of the video signal. The signal doesn't change, but the viewing conditions certainly do. Direct light on the monitor will make it look VERY different than it would look viewing the same signal in a pitch-dark room.
Let's put it this way -- if you calibrate the monitor to color bars, and you never adjust it to the different lighting conditions, then under different lighting conditions that color bar picture will look different! THAT's when you'll get the nasty surprises in the editing room. Bars should look like bars, and your monitor should be adjusted to make sure that under any given circumstances, the bars look like they should. That's the only way you know that your image is looking like it should.
Let's put it this way -- if you calibrate the monitor to color bars, and you never adjust it to the different lighting conditions, then under different lighting conditions that color bar picture will look different! THAT's when you'll get the nasty surprises in the editing room. Bars should look like bars, and your monitor should be adjusted to make sure that under any given circumstances, the bars look like they should. That's the only way you know that your image is looking like it should.
That or take a big black cloth with you to drape over the monitor.
Though there is starting to glimmer some vague understanding of Barry's point in the back of my slow mind I still think you need to calibrate the monitor to represent the true image of the camera and THEN make sure your viewing conditions are such that you can get a true idea of the picture being shot. Ofcourse this means you have to have a good reference monitor with all the right knobs and functions to truly calibrate the monitor. When using 'blue only', functions as 'contrast' and 'chroma' need to be set according to the bars and then left alone. I think that if you start to change those according to viewing conditions you will have some problems.
Though there is starting to glimmer some vague understanding of Barry's point in the back of my slow mind I still think you need to calibrate the monitor to represent the true image of the camera and THEN make sure your viewing conditions are such that you can get a true idea of the picture being shot. Ofcourse this means you have to have a good reference monitor with all the right knobs and functions to truly calibrate the monitor. When using 'blue only', functions as 'contrast' and 'chroma' need to be set according to the bars and then left alone. I think that if you start to change those according to viewing conditions you will have some problems.
Correct Karma. The only way to really control the image is under a controlled ambient situation (well been discribed for professional graphics and broadcast ambients...but it's not the black cloth). I brought up the brightness adjust in order to be able to still "see" (evaluate) the darker gray areas in an uncontrolled ambient situation.
